With the increasing costs of fuel, efforts at energy conservation are becoming increasingly cost effective. A major tool in determining the investments to make toward energy conservation is the measurement of the heat loss from buildings, machinery and the like. Typically, determining the amount of heat loss is time consuming and usually inaccurate. Improving the accuracy usually involves much testing of surface temperatures and other parameters, the recording of large amounts of data, and calculations based on engineering estimates. Infrared scanning devices have also been used to scan a surface and detect the radiation heat losses from that surface. The scanning hardware and electronics are complex. Often the output of the scanning detector is used to produce a photographic image of hot and cold spots on a surface. Such an image does not provide absolute measurements.
An object of the present invention is to provide a device which can be easily and quickly used by a relatively inexperienced technician to determine the heat losses from a surface. A further object of the invention is to provide such a device which is relatively inexpensive and portable.
A further object of the invention is to provide such a heat loss detector which provides a clear record of the actual surface area for which the measurements are made.